Remember high school? While I try to forget it as much as possible, there are some things that I can’t forget.

Unfortunately, it seems one of the easily forgotten subjects was Civics or Government. I don’t even remember what the class was called though I think maybe I took it in 10th grade?

Anyway, as you might know (and if you follow me on Facebook and Twitter you surely do) the Supreme Court is currently holding (and might have just conferenced today) Hollingsworth v. Perry, formerly Perry v. Brown aka the Prop 8 Case.

So I was writing before the Supreme Court conference concluded and we learned that yes, the Supreme Court will hear Hollingsworth v. Perry likely in March.

On with my rant. In my position with California Faith for Equality it didn’t take long to realize that I know basically nothing about how the justice system really works. So in the spirit of education being better than what I received, I would encourage the curriculum around civics to change. How fantastic could it be if instead of reading out of some dry government textbook (yes I remember a textbook) students used the current research modalities available and followed one case through the court system. It could be a historic case from another period of time like Brown v. Board of Education, any case, really. I can just guarantee you that type of curriculum would have been much more useful to me.

2 Responses to What did you learn in Civics?

#1 – I will try not to take offense to the comment re: high school.
#2 – American Government, as I believe it was called, was taught in 11th grade by Dick Zgonc. 9th grade would have been World History, likely with Janine Nelson and 10th grade would have been American History with Al Sansgaard.

#1–There was going to literally be a disclaimer statement for you and a few others, I promise! Our friendship–highlight of high school.
#2–Do you think you learned anything useful or is it just me because I am engrossed in this particular type of work where I am not a lawyer and have no desire to be a lawyer but need to understand procedures??